Another season of Championship football has been secured at Deepdale.

A 2-0 lead becoming a 2-2 draw from a seemingly comfortable position just meant that they did it in the fashion that became typical for the season as a whole.

North End should never have been in a relegation battle. They realistically spent one game week as part of one, it just happened to be the final one.

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A number of factors seemingly contributed to this, from the pile-up of injuries to players leaving a threadbare squad to the usual end of season drop-off that we’ve come to expect. It just usually happens when they’re actually safe.

Heckingbottom, talking to George Hodgson after the game, took aim at the level of officiating and he’s not without justification in doing that. It’s been a rough season from a refereeing point of view. But while he’s not wrong in his words, referees are the most criticised and worst paid people on most football pitches and often become scapegoats when things aren’t going the way you want.

He needs to take care deflecting too much blame because, while he deserves a good amount of credit for dragging North End up to midtable and to the FA Cup quarter-final, he also carries responsibility for the end-of-season form.

Big names depart Deepdale this summer, perhaps most notably Ryan Ledson and Emil Riis. The former feels like a shame because of his attitude to football and PNE but he wants more football and fans want more quality. The writing has been on the wall for Riis for some time, but he scored a key goal in Bristol.

Fans hoping for departures at the top of the club – most notably Peter Ridsdale – will likely be disappointed given the esteem that the owners hold him in. The written summary of a second meeting between the club and fans being released simply shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. But it speaks to a disconnect between the club and fans.

If the main focus he has now is to find a responsible and sensible buyer, then you’d suggest those fans won’t get their wish until that is to happen. Has anyone given Stu Bennett or the WWE a buzz? It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to sink money into football in 2025 but it does keep happening.

There are lots of things listed that fans want to see that can sometimes ultimately boil down to – win some football games consistently. Fans want to see new signings that gel and excite, better atmosphere and a successful structure behind the scenes. But good signings (of which Gibson in January very much appears to be) tend to mean better results, which tend to make the atmosphere better, which gives the impression that things are being run well.

It’s hard to tell in 2025 if this is actually a massive summer. Every summer has felt massive for a decade now. The time to push on, or patch up holes in the squad, and build back stronger for something exciting. Perhaps being one game from relegation means that this time it’s genuinely more important.

And so it’s impossible to predict what the summer and next season will bring. If Heckingbottom is backed, will he be able to deliver with a squad that better fits his image? If he isn’t, does he walk? What happens if he is backed but gets off to a slow start? Will any players other than the out-of-contract bunch be on their way out? Do any of that bunch end up staying? Is next season another year of flirting with each end of the table before ultimately fizzling out?

Or is it, for better or worse, something different entirely?

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